Of all the
sessions though, the most memorable for me was Georgia Arnold, SVP of Social
Responsibility at MTV Networks International and Executive Director of Staying
Alive Foundation. MTV created ‘Shuga’;
a 3-part African equivalent of ‘Gossip Girl’ that sought to educate young
adults about the dangers of sexual networks, multiple partners, drug use and living
with HIV/AIDS.

Georgia gave us a
fact that blew my mind; that 70% of young
Kenyans use social media, 80% have mobile phones - only 50% have an indoor
toilet (which last time I checked was the top tweet of the day for
#activate2010). By engaging with
the youth on social platforms MTV successfully had 60% of the young adult
population in Kenya watching the show, and through monitoring the results have
found that those who watched the show have proven to be more likely to make
wiser decisions around the issues raised. The full scope of their findings is
being unveiled at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna in a couple
weeks’ time.

Having had my
whole world opened up somewhat, I camped out in the ‘technology and the
developing world’ sessions for the rest of the day. I am now a total fan of Ethan Zuckerman. Also honourable mention to Dr David Cavallo
of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), who is changing the face of education in
developing worlds, and Rose Shuman of Open Mind - Question Box who in the 4
minutes given to her rocked my world with such a simple but effective way of
bringing the answers technology can bring to a rural area without technology.